Athletes have heard the ugly words on practice fields for most of their lives. They hear them in the streets and at neighborhood hangouts.

But when Chiefs running back Larry Johnson used an antigay slur on his Twitter account and in the locker room this week, he struck a nerve that makes professional sports leagues wince.

The NFL, like other pro sports leagues, is perceived as homophobic. Of the more than 20,000 athletes who have played in the NFL, less than a handful have identified themselves as gay  David Kopay was the first in 1975, followed by Roy Simmons and Esera Tuaolo  and only after their careers had ended.

Now the image-conscious NFL  which fines players for wearing droopy socks or the wrong-colored chin straps, is frightened by the prospect of Rush Limbaugh as an owner and enforces a rigid personal conduct policy  is confronted with how to deal with gay-bashing.

It seems like every single season Im getting phone calls about some athlete saying a gay slur, and using the word gay and faggot and homo and queer in such a negative term, Tuaolo said in a phone interview with The Star from his home in suburban Minneapolis.

There are gay athletes in the NFL and in baseball and in the NHL its so crippling to someone who is going to work knowing there is no support in their organization. What is also crippling to an athlete is hearing slurs like that thrown around like its just the thing to do. When you use the term gay or faggot or queer and you use it in a negative term, its the same as calling a woman a bitch. Its demeaning to another human being. And its not right.

Liberals get their panties in a bind when they hear the word ‘faggot’, but liberals viciously attack conservatives. If you are going to be hyper-sensitive about words, then don’t spew hate against those you disagree with.

Proffesional sports has always been a “High Testosterone” environment and always will be. In an “arena” like the NFL if an active player came out of the closet, he might find himself leaving the field on a stretcher.

The NFL has decided to pick up the liberal play book to oppose Rush and all things white so I say, TIME TO RAM IT DOWN THEIR HATE PORTALS.

Some examples of the NFL’s hatred of diversity: 1. Gays are not openly accepted or courted. In fact they are openly abused! 2. There are NO Orientals of any race in the NFL. NONE AT ALL! Orientals are not allowed in the NFL! 3. Hispanics, yep only 2 that I have heard of. la vista baby! 4. Trans-gendered players are also not allowed in the hateful racist NFL.

If the NFL wants to live by the PC sword then its time that they die by the PC sword. They need to embrace Political Correctness head on and make sure their teams statically represent the USA demographics. That means only 13% blacks are allowed in the new PC NFL.

Somehow I expect this is one area where the ever advancing and agitating homosexual movement will be met with stiff resistance. However, I think the NFL is in fact inching closer to putting dresses on QBs, so there may be a glimmer of homo hope at one at least one position...

There are NO Orientals of any race in the NFL. NONE AT ALL! Orientals are not allowed in the NFL!

Hines Ward's mother is Korean, as is Will Demps's. Roman Gabriel (QB for the LA Rams and Philadelphia Eagles) was the first Filipino player in the NFL. There are numerous Pacific islanders in the league, including 28 Somoan players active right now.

Guess you’ve never seen Haruki Nakamura of the Ravens. He’s a safety and special teams demon. Graduate of the University of Cincinnati. His father was a judo gold medalist in the `64 Olympics in Tokyo for Japan.

When you use the term gay or faggot or queer and you use it in a negative term, its the same as calling a woman a bitch. Its demeaning to another human being. And its not right.

Regardless of the oppression the homosexual fascists want to inflict upon us, you simply cannot alter the natural revulsion that occurs when encounter something so unnatural, as unwholesome and completely disturbing as open homosexuality.

It is the height of man's inhumanity to their fellow man to deny these people the treatment they need to recover from this mental illness.

I was hoping someone else would add him to the list. I’m, to some degree, a location-motivated Eagles fan, but Andy Reid just doesn’t seem to have the creativity and originality to direct and optimize the talent on his team, and Rush was right about that over-rated, aging, Irish-Scotsman quarterback.

34
posted on 10/31/2009 6:58:23 AM PDT
by flowerplough
( Pennsylvania today - New New Jersey meets North West Virginia.)

I suspect that professional wrestling also has a significant homosexual demographic in its fan base—certainly in comparison to other sports. It’s not much of a stretch that the athletes would be more open about it.

NE pa. born-Lifetime Phillies fan,but lifetime Giants fan.
Seriously, the black community both male and females don’t
like homosexuals especially black ones that’s why its called
“ON the Down Lo” in the black community.

its so crippling to someone who is going to work knowing there is no support in their organization.

What were you planning to do at work that would require "support" for your homosexuality? (Not sure I want to know, but sure I wouldn't approve.)

I'm nostalgic for the days of Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The "love that dare not speak its name" has become the love that won't shut the h*** up. There's nothing more disgusting than a 300-pound whiner.

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